2016 Teacher Training
is underway. Next training Summer 2017
This is a 56 hour certificate Teacher Training program to teach Inner Strength Teen Program to high school students. The Inner Strength Teen Program is a unique high school program which teaches adolescents powerful and effective focus, stress reduction, and compassion tools, all set in a framework of cultural and physiological development. Teens become archaeologists of themselves. They learn to explore their personal experience as they feel it and as a result of 300 million years of influence. These tools and perspectives can make all the difference, turning a life burdened by overwhelm into a life filled with interest.
In this Teacher Training, you will learn how to teach the 12-week program. You will also receive ongoing support once you begin bringing these tools into the classroom. All teacher training graduates will be welcome to teach, and receive fee-for-service, in ISF inner city programs.
First, what do the teens learn?
Self Support
Students are experiencing increasing levels of stress. Gun violence, bullying, economic uncertainty, academic competition, all contribute to dangerous levels of anxiety. Students learn time-honored tools to access inner strength and cultivate outer stability.
Toolbox
Focus
Time-honored and evidence-based mindfulness practices give students immediate personal support. Students learn to explore the mysterious nature of consciousness, which can ignite an ongoing curiosity about the nature of life.
Toolbox
Teen Brain
As sophisticated as we are, we are still influenced by our reptilian brain, which has been honed to trigger fight and fear responses for over 300 million years. The teen brain is also undergoing seismic chemical shifts, which influence judgement, perception, and responses. Learning about these physiological changes helps teens become responsible for themselves, and gain confidence during this turbulent stage of life.
Toolbox
Cultural
Stages
Our culture and social structures have made some huge leaps in the last 800 years. Connecting the dots between the greater freedoms we have now, the broader personal responsibility and choices, and our levels of stress and uncertainty gives students new ways to work with their own experience.
Toolbox
Unlock access to liberating perspectives for teens.
Second, what will I learn?
Teacher Training Structure
The Mindfulness & Cultural Development Teacher Training is designed for optimal support. You will learn the techniques and perspectives, practice teaching, and participate in ongoing teacher’s calls once you begin teaching. The goal of this program is to impart indepth training and ensure a very high caliber of instruction in the schools. Additionally, this training is designed to grow a collective of school mindfulness teachers who support each other’s creativity and growth.
56 Hours of Indepth Training
The Mindfulness & Cultural Development Teacher Training includes 2 in-person weekends, 4 training video-conference sessions, and 12 weekly professional development conference calls once you start teaching.
The training includes conceptual overview, background reading, practice teaching sessions using the 100 page Teacher’s Manual, and mindfulness sessions to explore your own understanding of the practice.
Join this summer! Are you to dive in?
Insights
Teaching Mindfulness & Cultural Development is personally rewarding. New insights catalyze our own growth and transformation.
from Our Teens
Experience joy as lightbulbs go off for students and they discover unexpected joy and depth.
Any questions? Email me
Dates
The Teacher Training will begin with a full weekend training. Over the course of the weekend, you will develop your understanding of how to teach mindfulness tools with an emphasis on a developmental context. You will learn how to work with difficult classes and what posture or inner attitude is most important for teachers of mindfulness to exemplify and transmit to students. This weekend will be followed by 4 interactive video conference calls. Participants will present to the group and being individual class reviews. In the final weekend, you will work in small groups and in the large group, refining your understanding of the specific lessons and the underlying objectives and goals. Once classes begin in the Fall, you will participate in weekly conference calls which are focused on the specific class experience. You will be given support both by Amy and by the cohort, which is growing into a dynamic collective of committed teachers of teen mindfulness.
Weekend I
July 15 – July 17
The non-residential weekend will take place in Philadelphia.
Weekend II
Aug 12 – Aug 14
The non-residential weekend will take place in Philadelphia.
Interactive Video
Classes
Tuesday Evenings
Between the weekends, we’ll have 4 participatory video classes.
Ongoing Development Teleconferences
Fall or Spring
Weekly 1-hour teacher development calls during your first semester teaching to plan the next week’s class, discuss challenges, share creative teaching tools.
Teacher’s
Manual
Teacher’s Manual
Registration includes a copy of the 100+ page Mindfulness & Cultural Development Teacher’s Manual.This manual is only available for participants and includes detailed lesson plans, additional readings for teachers, additional teaching tools for the classroom.
Audio
Resources
Audio Downloads
Access to teacher only audio resource page with sample lessons and guided meditations.